Photo alteration scandal embarrasses Russian Orthodox Church

April 5, 2012

The Russian Orthodox Church has been in the hot seat recently, after bloggers caught on to a failed attempt to alter an image of Patriarch Kirill. An image posted on the church's official website was taken down shortly after being posted, when people began to notice the image had been doctored, according to the AFP. It appeared as though a watch had been Photoshopped off of the leader's wrist, but the perpetrators of this slight forgot to erase the reflection on the table.

Some have made educated guesses that the watch worn by the Partriarch was a Breguet, which is worth nearly $40,000. This luxurious item has created quite a great deal of controversy in Russia and on the internet. This incident only fuels criticisms that Church leaders are leading inappropriately wealthy lifestyles, the news source indicates.

"We reject on principle any use of photo editing software to alter the appearance of images," read a statement issued by the Patriarch's press service, according to BBC. "There will be a thorough investigation to determine why in this instance there was a crude violation of our internal ethical code. The guilty ones will be punished severely."